PetroLatina Energy has commissioned works to connect the Serafin-1 gas well to the main Colombian gas trunk line and expects production to commence during the last quarter of 2010.
The Serafin gas field is located in the Tisquirama licence block in the Middle Magdelana Valley. The well was worked over in January 2007 and tested at flow rates of 14 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmscf/d). Based on the recent assessment by Ryder Scott, GIIP is estimated to be 5.37 billion cubic feet (bcf) with 1P Reserves of 3.13bcf, and the well is expected to be capable of initially producing up to 7mmscf/d.
Since January 2007, the gas price that the company expects to receive and which is not subject to price regulation from the regulatory commission for energy and gas (CREG), has substantially increased from $3.50 per thousand cubic feet to between $5-$6 per thousand cubic feet. The company has held negotiations with several potential gas customers, and commercial gas sales are expected to commence in the final quarter of 2010.
PetroLatina said in December 2009 that it had resolved all technical and legal issues relating to the tie-in of the Serafin-1 gas well to the main Colombian gas trunk line. The company has now entered into a contract to construct a ‘city gate’ gas handling station to connect the Serafin-1 gas well to the Ballenas-Barrancabermeja gas trunk line that carries the bulk of Colombia’s gas production from the Caribbean coast to the gas consuming cities in the centre of the country.
The company has pre-paid its share of the estimated total cost of the development ($1.36m) for the construction works. The construction project is expected to take six months to complete.
Juan Rodriguez, CEO of PetroLatina, said: “We are delighted to have entered into this contract to tie-in the Serafin-1 well to the main Colombian gas trunk line to enable commercial gas sales from the Serafin gas well to commence later this year.
“We expect that the cash flows to be generated by this project will help fund our plans to drill up to a further eight new wells across all of our Colombian assets over the remainder of this year with the aim of increasing production and substantially increasing possible reserves, as well as moving an element of them into the 2P category.”